Sen. Paul has new plan to remove Fauci as top US infection scientist, eliminate his NIAID post

GOP Sen. Rand Paul on Monday proposed a measure to end Dr. Anthony Fauci's reign as the country's top infectious disease expert – eliminate his position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and divide the power of that post across three new and separate national research institutes.

Paul, a physician from Kentucky, is among the most outspoken critics of Fauci's COVID-19 policies, particularly those on masks, vaccines and lockdowns. 

"We’ve learned a lot over the past two years, but one lesson in particular is that no one person should be deemed 'dictator-in-chief.' " Paul said in announcing his amendment. "No one person should have unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans."

Fauci has been the NIAID director since 1984.

Paul argues his proposed change will "create accountability and oversight into a taxpayer funded position that has largely abused its power, and has been responsible for many failures and misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic."

The amendment making its way into a larger bill and being passed will likely face long odds in the Senate, considers it's controlled by Democrats. Fauci is also Democrat President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser.

Paul also suggests his proposal has precedent, saying that as recently as 2012 Congress passed a law that eliminated the National Center for Research Resources and reassigned some of its programs to a new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and assigned other NCRR functions to other institutes within NIH.